


Homecoming

by SirJosephBanksFRS



Category: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-25
Updated: 2013-05-25
Packaged: 2017-12-12 23:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/817400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirJosephBanksFRS/pseuds/SirJosephBanksFRS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack’s triumphant homecoming after his brilliant success in <i>The Mauritius Command</i> is significantly less warm than he would have hoped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homecoming

Having finished dinner and sitting at his desk in his room at the Grapes, transcribing notes on the flora of La Réunion from slips of paper into a notebook, Stephen Maturin was surprised to hear what he was certain was Jack Aubrey's voice and step downstairs and then to hear Jack’s steps on the stairs and looked up to see him opening the door and coming in, carrying a small valise with him. They had only arrived home two days beforehand and Stephen was not expecting to see Jack for at least a week.  
  
"Faith, what are you doing here so soon, Jack?" Stephen said, seeing Jack's obviously unhappy face." You only just got to Ashgrove and now you are here?" Jack closed the door behind him, dropped the bag, took his coat off and hung it on a chair, kicked off his shoes and lay down prone on the bed, his feet hanging off the end, his face in his hands.  
  
"Christ, Stephen, you would think when a man's been gone from home for so long and comes home the conquering hero that he would return to a warm welcome." Jack said, shaking his head. "Of course all was fine when I got home. The girls have grown so much and are talking and I got to see George at last. Sophie was all smiles and quite happy to see me until it was bedtime." He sat up and looked at Stephen.  
  
"Oh, dear." Stephen said. He closed his notebook and put the quill aside and turned to face Jack.  
  
"Yes, quite, Stephen. Oh, dear indeed. You would have thought I had the plague. "What are you doing?" said she. "Undressing" said I. My God, Stephen, am I that hideous? She actually cringed." Jack said indignantly.  
  
"Jack, you are no different than when you left."  
  
"Taking my clothes off made her quite agitated and not in a good way. Dear God, Stephen, I don't know that she will ever do the act with me again. She told me she doesn't want any more babies."  
  
"You could do that which does not result in babies, brother."  
  
"My very thought, Stephen and she said,"No, Jack, once your breeches are off, you always end up seeking out the same port," or words to that effect. I was holding her and she could feel my prick getting hard and she jumped away from me." Jack said, downcast.  
  
"Jack, I hesitate to be so indelicate, but some find it efficacious to avoid conception by contriving to have the emission of fluid occur externally.”  
  
“Oh, Stephen, we did that. Nine months before George was born.” Jack said morosely, his face in his hands. “And only because Sophie herself set on me, I was not of a mind to face another rebuff. I was quite pleased with myself and she urged me finish the deed away from her.” Jack said. “How can I blame her? She told me that she had very large tear from his birth; he has a great round head. It was almost fifteen inches around when he was born and he was nine pounds.  She could scarcely actually sit down for almost three months. And it seems that all I have to do is have a carnal thought in the same room with her and she is got with child.” Jack said ruefully.  
  
“Soul, sure you know that the fault does not lie with you. That this does not mean that she does not love you.” Stephen said, softly and moving his chair closer.  
  
"How can I not take it ill?  I said, "Sweetheart, what am I to do? I have been away for over a year." She told me "Do what you do on board ship." And so here I am." Jack said, miserably.  
  
"Jack, be patient with her. The poor soul. She dearly loves you. You said goodbye and then she went through an entire pregnancy and childbirth alone and it sounds like another very bad delivery.”  
  
“Stephen, it had been so long since the last time before,  it had been since before the twins birth -- more than nine months, more than a year. The night before I left was the first time since before they were born. And I think her fervour for me was her jealousy of Lady Clonfert, of all things. Lady Clonfert, forsooth. Oh, Stephen, what a damned sorry mess. My God, if every woman I have ever lain with were like Sophie, I would have more than three score bastards scattered in ports all over the world, God forbid. I never thought a woman being barren could be a good thing in a wife. Stephen, is there anything that would work? Anything that would work to prevent her having another baby?" Jack said, looking somewhat desperately at Stephen.  
  
"Truth be told, no. I have seen in France a device made from sheep’s intestine to cover the _membrum virile_ , but I cannot attest to how successful it is for preventing pregnancy. There are many old wives’ tales of methods to attempt, but given the number of unwanted babies, I should say there is nothing that really works, especially for a woman as fertile as Sophie. I  have seen women who could fall pregnant four times in one year, after only four conjugal acts and suffer four miscarriages and refuse to ever go to the marriage bed again. Some swear by a method that works by the calendar, but it is efficacious by permitting the act only when many women have little or no desire. But surely she will not be this fertile for that much longer. The rate of conception is said to decline dramatically after age thirty.” Stephen said, regretting his honesty when he saw Jack’s look of hopelessness.  
  
“Well, this is a goddamned fine kettle of fish. I shall go back, of course, tomorrow or the next day. I left so I should not say anything I would regret later and of course, Mother Williams is there. I made up an excuse, said I had urgent business I had only just remembered.” There were tears in Jack’s eyes. Stephen got up and lay down next to him, laying an arm across his back, his chin propped up on his other arm.  
  
“Joy, I am very sorry to hear it.”  
  
“Stephen, I don’t expect to have to feel like a goddamned scrub for wanting to be with my own wife. I did not think that after I was married that I would feel as though I were in the position of always asking a favour, coercing a favour from her, a favour she would just as soon not render. I suppose that is the way it is with women. It is either that or the look of reproach afterwards, like you have taken something from them and offered nothing in return. It is the always being at a moral disadvantage that is just so wearing. Truth be told, it makes me feel so low. At least that was an advantage of never having long term romances, the bloom was never off the rose, because I was usually out of port before that could happen. But even with them, I could sense the resentment.” Jack said, rolling over on his back and looking at the afternoon sun streaming through Stephen’s windows.  
  
“Much of it is the intrinsic inequality between the sexes, Jack. Women incur a significant and perhaps permanent risk for a few moments of pleasure. We have the pleasure and can walk away, no pregnancy, no baby, no physical repercussions of delivery, no damage to our reputations, no self-recrimination over our lost virtue. The most we have to fear is disease. Were it not for Mother Nature, the human race should have ceased to exist, it is so very disadvantageous to women. We may thank God that they are taught from infancy to want to have babies and given strong reproductive urges. Some women have much stronger amatory drive than others but no man should give in to our drives if we experienced what women do.” Stephen said and he moved to face Jack.  
  
“Indeed. I have only known one woman in my life who was not that way with me and she was just a girl and I was a mere lad myself. She was the sweetest, most loving girl and she fancied me more than any other woman I have ever known.” Jack said sadly. “Of course, it was not meant to be, and we were, truth be told, just children.”  
  
“Where was that?” Stephen asked.  
  
“I was a midshipman, an oldster on _Resolution_ , a seventy-four at the Cape, under Captain Douglas.” Jack answered. “I was still a boy, I had just turned sixteen years old and the girl, Sally, she was as thrilled with me as I was with her. Knowing her was a very happy education." He sighed. “Jack, old fellow, it has been downhill ever since. There is much in what you say, Stephen and it seems that is just the way of evil Mother Nature.” Stephen reached over and stroked his queue. “I do not think it is just Sophie, I think it is the nature of English womanhood.” Jack said and he turned and kissed Stephen. “My God, it is such a relief.”  
  
“To be with me?”  
  
“Yes. To be with you, Stephen.” Jack said and his voice was hoarse and Stephen smiled, Jack’s lust was so transparent. “To be with you because you do not act as though I am robbing you, because that look does not exist between us, because I never feel like a damned scrub.” Stephen sat up and got up to lock the door.  
  
“You are no scrub.” Stephen said and he sat down and loosened Jack’s hair. “My poor Jack. Such is the nature of women, the unfortunate souls. God must have a very different perspective than we do in His infinite wisdom. Perhaps, some day, the act will be removed at will from conception and women will not have the dread around it that they face now. Perhaps it will make women more like men in attitude and desire.” He leaned forward and kissed Jack softly. “Has she seen a real physician since George’s birth? A tear can be most painful, Jack, so painful that any pressure on the perineum is unbearable.”  
  
“I do not know, Stephen.” Jack said, the very idea of the tear filling him with horror.  
  
“I will recommend someone to examine her if you and she wish. I know very little of these things, having practically no obstetric experience.” Jack started untying Stephen’s neckcloth. Stephen bent forward and reached in Jack’s breeches and loosened the girth, leaned down and loosened the knees and they undressed each other as quickly as they could and Jack bent forward to kiss Stephen's neck and shoulders. He and Stephen fell naked into each others arms on the bed.  
  
"I am so happy to be with you on land." Jack said. "And so happy I left Bonden and Killick at Ashgrove." Jack's hands trembled as he took Stephen’s face in his hands and kissed him. “Stephen, tell me what you wish.” Jack said, stroking the side of Stephen’s face.  
  
“We shall couple, Jack, given this privacy. You shall make me very happy if you shall do unto me as I last did unto you.” Stephen said and he pulled away from Jack to open a drawer and get a small jar out. “Do you remember?”  
  
“I remember but I do not know about the particulars.” Jack said, colouring. “I was not attending.”  
  
“Joy, I shall gladly instruct you,”Stephen said, a smile playing on his lips, “and then you will see, as Cicero said, “ _Usus magister est optimus._ ”” Jack raised an eyebrow. “To practice is to obtain mastery” and you need not fear for me. That is what I wish more than anything else, that you lay aside your fear of hurting me. You are the tenderest and most considerate of men and I esteem you most highly for it. You have never hurt me, Jack, so, pray let me show you because my need for you is as great as yours for me.” Stephen said and he took Jack’s hand in his, kissing it.  
  
“Do teach me, Stephen.” Jack said and Stephen did and an hour later they were lying spent in each other’s arms, Jack stroking Stephen’s hair.  
  
"That girl at the Cape, Stephen, was the only woman who ever told me what to do to please her, the way you just did now."  Jack said wistfully. "There was none of the coyness, the maintaining that she either did not know or did not care in order to appear, I suppose, more virtuous, more virginal. I suppose it was because she was African. God knows, I ain't clairvoyant. I am afraid I do not always take my soundings very well and then I seem selfish and dare I say it, inept." Jack said dolefully.  
  
"Shh, soul, no one should say that." Stephen said, kissing him.  
  
"I am not so sure." Jack said. "Tis not so enjoyable when the girl is not thrilled to be there and seems like she just wants it over with." Jack said, frowning.  
  
"Indeed." Stephen said, stroking Jack's face and kissing him. "He is so sensitive, the creature." Stephen thought. "I have never seen him so cut to the quick." He gazed into Jack's brilliant blue eyes, clouded with vexation. "Soul, I find you exemplary." Jack sighed.  
  
"Tis so much easier with you, Stephen. It is the difference between being the Captain on the quarterdeck and being with my particular friend in the cabin. Maybe I am not forced to be to such a degree the great man when I am with a woman versus an entire crew, but there is something exhausting about having to be the man to their woman all the time, if you smoke my meaning. With you, I need only be myself. You never run out false colours and mixed signals. You tell me and show me how to please you; I find it easy to interpret your responses. Virtually no woman has ever done me that kindness. You can beg them to tell you what they want and they almost never will. I guess it ain't sporting. I should not be so facetious, but you know what I mean. It don’t answer. The ship does not use words to tell me how to sail her but I have spent twenty years full time learning my trade. Apparently, it is entirely my job to figure it out and then to be entirely grateful for the favour done me."  
  
“Men have very bad words for women who enjoy the act too much,” Stephen said, “and therein lies the problem.” He kissed Jack’s neck. “I must be up now, my dear. I have a meeting with some fellows of the Royal, but I shall be back in three hours time and we may have supper and some music.” Stephen said, getting up to dress and looking at the spare violin they left in Stephen’s room for these nights together. “I shall tell Mrs. Broad supper for two. Shall I go with you to Ashgrove tomorrow?”  
  
“If you please. Are you at liberty?”  
  
“I am. I must see this fine little fellow of yours and bring a present for him and for Sophie.” Stephen bent down to kiss Jack. “Conserve your energy, Jack, we have all night, dear soul.”  
  
“Oh, Stephen, what a fellow you are.” Jack said and he laughed.  
  
“I do not jest.”  
  
“I know.” Jack said, his face flushing pink below his tan, as he pulled his clothes on. “Stephen, pray do not tarry.” He added, his voice again hoarse with lust. Stephen smiled hearing it.

“Never in life, Jack,” Stephen said pulling Jack close for a kiss, “for there is not a moment to be lost.”


End file.
